Needles California

Friday May 4, 2018

We say goodbye to the Pacific Inn about 9:30 and top off the tank before we start the freeway course to Needles. We picked Needles as the half way point to Flagstaff. We will use Flagstaff as our home base for seeing the Grand Canyon, the next big ticket item on my grand adventure. If we didn't have GPS and Google Maps we would have to write out the series of freeways and mark them off like my masters used to do on MYC regatta long races.

Once we are out of the greater LA area, we pass the San Gabriel Mountains on our left. We crest the Cajon Summit at 4,190 feet and enter the high desert. We stop in Barstow so my masters can have lunch at Oggis. I guess the pizza was just OK. It is hot today so they parked in the shade and checked on me. 

We momentarily decided to take Route 66 from Barstow to Needles but the road was worse than a herd of camel's backs with hump after hump. Enough of that, we got back on I40. We see another lava field near Lavic, California. Trains are back with us. Many of them and all with lots and lots of cars.

We pass by the Mojave National Preserve and the Granite Mountains on our north and the Marble and Clipper Mountains and Joshua Tree National Park to the south. We pass through the Sacramento Mountains. We see the Dead Mountains and as we come over the hill, we see green in the valley. We as we near Needles we can see our old friend the Colorado River. As we drive around town, we see the Colorado River up close and many Route 66 signs.

We checked in to the hotel. Boy is it HOT. There is absolutely no grass for my walk, just rocks or dirt. I pick rocks. My masters go out for dinner, guess it was nothing to shout about because they didn't even tell me what they had or where they went. My master takes me for my evening walk. Where is a girl to go? My master said I looked like Pig Pen with dust coming up around me every step I took. Who's Pig Pen?